Traveling of amateurs. Selected works. Okudzhava B.

Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava (1924–1997) gained wide fame as the author of songs, bard, poet. But he also wrote a wonderful prose: “Historical fantasies” from the 19th century and autobiographical works. Its prosaic texts are also musical: a lot of votes, each of which sounds in its own way, intertwine into a single artistic fabric, miraculously transforming the historical facts and lines of biographies into art.

Perhaps the most important topic of the entire work of Okudzhava is human dignity. With bitterness, he stated: "We still do not know how to respect the human person, we do not know how to see the highest value of life in it." This motive passes in a red thread through all its work.

The book includes the most significant novels of Okudzhava created on the material of the 19th century: “The Journey of Amateurs” (1971–1977, publ. 1976–1978), “A Date with Bonaparte” (1983, its author has repeatedly called its best work), as well as the autobiographical novel “The abolished theater” (1989–1993; he was awarded the Buker Prize in 1994), supplemented by autobiographical stories.

The early story “Be healthy, schoolboy” (1961), also included in the collection, “This is not an adventure. This is about how I fought. How to kill me, but I was lucky "...